The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901 Part 49

* Erastus Snow's "Address to the Pioneers," 1880.

While they were camping near South Pa.s.s, an incident occurred which narrowly escaped changing the plans of the Lord, if he had already selected Salt Lake Valley. One of the men whom the company met there was a voyager whose judgment about a desirable site for a settlement naturally seemed worthy of consideration. This was T. L. Smith, better known as "Pegleg" Smith. He had been a companion of Jedediah S. Smith, one of Ashley's company of trappers, who had started from Great Salt Lake in August, 1826, and made his way to San Gabriel Mission in California, and thence eastward, reaching the Lake again in the spring of 1827. "Pegleg" had a trading post on Bear River above Soda Springs (in the present Idaho). He gave the Mormons a great deal of information about all the valley which lay before them, and to the north and south.

"He earnestly advised us," says Erastus Snow, "to direct our course northwestward from Bridger, and make our way into Cache Valley; and he so far made an impression upon the camp that we were induced to enter into an engagement with him to meet us at a certain time and place two weeks afterward, to pilot our company into that country. But for some reason, which to this day never to my knowledge has been explained, he failed to meet us; and I have ever recognized his failure to do so as a providence of an all-wise G.o.d."*

* "Address to the Pioneers," 1880.

"Pegleg's" reputation was as bad as that of any of those reckless trappers of his day, and perhaps, if the Mormons had known more about him, they would have given less heed to his advice, and counted less on his keeping his engagement.

With the returning Oregonians they also made the acquaintance of Major Harris, an old trapper and hunter in California and Oregon, who gave them little encouragement about Salt Lake Valley, as a place of settlement, princ.i.p.ally because of the lack of timber. Two days later they met Colonel James Bridger, an authority on that part of the country, whose "fort" was widely known. Young told him that he proposed to take a look at Great Salt Lake Valley with a view to its settlement.

Bridger affirmed that his experiments had more than convinced him that corn would not grow in those mountains, and, when Young expressed doubts about this, he offered to give the Mormon President $1000 for the first ear raised in that valley. Next they met a mountaineer named Goodyear, who had pa.s.sed the last winter on the site of what is now Ogden, Utah, where he had tried without success to raise a little grain and a few vegetables. He told of severe cold in winter and drought in summer.

Irrigation had not suggested itself to a man who had a large part of a continent in which to look for a more congenial farm site.

Mormons in all later years have said that they were guided to the Salt Lake Valley in fulfilment of the prediction of Joseph Smith that they would have to flee to the Rocky Mountains. But in their progress across the plains the leaders of the pioneers were not indifferent to any advice that came in their way, and in a ma.n.u.script "History of Brigham Young" (1847), quoted by H. H. Bancroft, is the following entry, which may indicate the first suggestion that turned their attention from "California" to Utah: "On the 15th of June met James H. Grieve, William Tucker, James Woodrie, James Bouvoir, and six other Frenchmen, from whom we learned that Mr. Bridger was located about three hundred miles west, that the mountaineers could ride to Salt Lake from Fort Bridger in two days, and that the Utah country was beautiful." *

* Bancroft's "History of Utah," p. 257.

The pioneers resumed their march on June 29, over a desolate country, travelling seventeen miles without finding gra.s.s or water, until they made their night camp on the Big Sandy. There they encountered clouds of mosquitoes, which made more than one subsequent camping-place very uncomfortable. A march of eight miles the next morning brought them to Green River. Finding this stream 180 yards wide, and deep and swift, they stopped long enough to make two rafts, on which they successfully ferried over all their wagons without unloading them.

At this point the pioneers met a brother Mormon who had made the journey to California round the Horn, and had started east from there to meet the overland travellers. He had an interesting story to tell, the points of which, in brief, were as follows:--A conference of Mormons, held in New York City on November 12, 1845, resolved to move in a body to the new home of the Saints. This emigration scheme was placed in charge of Samuel Brannan, a native of Maine, and an elder in the church, who was then editing the New York Prophet, and preaching there. Why so important a project was confided to Brannan seems a mystery, in view of P.

P. Pratt's statement that, as early as the previous January, he had discovered that Brannan was among certain elders who "had been corrupting the Saints by introducing among them all manner of false doctrines and immoral practices"; he was afterward disfellows.h.i.+pped at Nauvoo. By Pratt's advice he immediately went to that city, and was restored to full standing in the church, as any bad man always was when he acknowledged submission to the church authorities.* Plenty of emigrants offered themselves under Orson Pratt's call, but of the 300 first applicants for pa.s.sage only about 60 had money enough to pay their expenses.

* Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 374.

Although it was estimated that $75 would cover the outlay for the trip.

Brannan chartered the Brooklyn, a s.h.i.+p of 450 tons, and on February 4, 1846, she sailed with 70 men, 68 women, and 100 children.*

* Bancrofts figures, "History of California," Vol. V, Chap. 20.

The voyage to San Francisco ended on July 31. Ten deaths and two births occurred during the trip, and four of the company, including two elders and one woman, had to be excommunicated "for their wicked and licentious conduct." Three others were dealt with in the same way as soon as the company landed.* On landing they found the United States in possession of the country, which led to Brannan's reported remark, "There is that d--d flag again." The men of the party, some of whom had not paid all their pa.s.sage money, at once sought work, but the company did not hold together. Before the end of the year some 20 more "went astray," in church parlance; some decided to remain on the coast when they learned that the church was to make Salt Lake Valley its headquarters, and some time later about 140 reached Utah and took up their abode there.

* Brannan's letter, Millennial Star, Vol. IX, pp. 306-307.

Brannan fell from grace and was p.r.o.nounced by P. P. Pratt "a corrupt and wicked man." While he was getting his expedition in shape, he sent to the church authorities in the West a copy of an agreement which he said he had made with A. G. Benson, an alleged agent of Postmaster General Kendall. Benson was represented as saying that, unless the Mormon leaders signed an agreement, to which President Polk was a "silent partner," by which they would "transfer to A. G. Benson and Co., and to their heirs and a.s.signs, the odd number of all the lands and town lots they may acquire in the country where they settle," the President would order them to be dispersed. This seems to have been too transparent a scheme to deceive Young, and the agreement was not signed.

The march of the pioneers was resumed on July 3. That evening they were told that those who wished to return eastward to meet their families, who were perhaps five hundred miles back with the second company, could do so; but only five of them took advantage of this permission. The event of Sunday, July 4, was the arrival of thirteen members of the Battalion, who had pushed on in advance of the main body of those who were on the way from Pueblo, in order that they might recover some horses stolen from them, which they were told were at Bridger's Fort.

They said that the main body of 140 were near at hand. This company had been directed in their course by instructions sent to them by Brigham Young from a point near Fort Laramie.

The hards.h.i.+ps of the trip had told on the pioneers, and a number of them were now afflicted with what they called "mountain fever." They attributed this to the clouds of dust that enveloped the column of wagons when in motion, and to the decided change of temperature from day to night. For six weeks, too, most of them had been without bread, living on the meat provided by the hunters, and saving the little flour that was left for the sick.

The route on July 5 kept along the right bank of the Green River for about three miles, and then led over the bluffs and across a sandy, waterless plain for sixteen miles, to the left bank of Black's Fork, where they camped for the night. The two following days took them across this Fork several times, but, although fording was not always comfortable, the stream added salmon trout to their menu. On the 7th the party had a look at Bridger's Fort, of which they had heard often.

Orson Pratt described it at the time as consisting "of two adjoining log houses, dirt roofs, and a small picket yard of logs set in the ground, and about eight feet high. The number of men, squaws, and half-breed children in these houses and lodges may be about fifty or sixty."

At the camp, half a mile from the fort, that night ice formed. The next day the blacksmiths were kept busy repairing wagons and shoeing horses in preparation for a trail through the mountains. On the 9th and 10th they pa.s.sed over a hilly country, camping on Beaver River on the night of the 10th.

The fever had compelled several halts on account of the condition of the patients, and on the 12th it was found that Brigham Young was too ill to travel. In order not to lose time, Orson Pratt, with forty-three men and twenty-three wagons, was directed to push on into Salt Lake Valley, leaving a trail that the others could follow. From the information obtainable at Fort Bridger it was decided that the canyon leading into the valley would be found impa.s.sable on account of high water, and that they should direct their course over the mountains.

These explorers set out on July 14, travelling down Red Fork, a small stream which ran through a narrow valley, whose sides in places were from eight hundred to twelve hundred feet high,--red sandstone walls, perpendicular or overhanging. This route was a rough one, requiring frequent fordings of the stream, and they did well to advance thirteen miles that day. On the 15th they discovered a mountain trail that had been recommended to them, but it was a mere trace left by wagons that had pa.s.sed over it a year before. They came now to the roughest country they had found, and it became necessary to send sappers in advance to open a road before the wagons could pa.s.s over it. Almost discouraged, Pratt turned back on foot the next day, to see if he could not find a better route; but he was soon convinced that only the one before them led in the direction they were to take. The wagons were advanced only four and three-quarters miles that day, even the creek bottom being so covered with a growth of willows that to cut through these was a tiresome labor. Pratt and a companion, during the day, climbed a mountain, which they estimated to be about two thousand feet high, but they only saw, before and around them, hills piled on hills and mountains on mountains,--the outlines of the Wahsatch and Uinta ranges.

On Monday, the 18th, Pratt again acted as advance explorer, and went ahead with one companion. Following a ravine on horseback for four miles, they then dismounted and climbed to an elevation from which, in the distance, they saw a level prairie which they thought could not be far from Great Salt Lake. The whole party advanced only six and a quarter miles that day and six the next.

One day later Erastus Snow came up with them, and Pratt took him along as a companion in his advance explorations. They discovered a point where the travellers of the year before had ascended a hill to avoid a canyon through which a creek dashed rapidly. Following in their predecessors' footsteps, when they arrived at the top of this hill there lay stretched out before them "a broad, open valley about twenty miles wide and thirty long, at the north end of which the waters of the Great Salt Lake glistened in the sunbeams." Snow's account of their first view of the valley and lake is as follows:--"The thicket down the narrows, at the mouth of the canyon, was so dense that we could not penetrate through it. I crawled for some distance on my hands and knees through this thicket, until I was compelled to return, admonished to by the rattle of a snake which lay coiled up under my nose, having almost put my hand on him; but as he gave me the friendly warning, I thanked him and retreated. We raised on to a high point south of the narrows, where we got a view of the Great Salt Lake and this valley, and each of us, without saying a word to the other, instinctively, as if by inspiration, raised our hats from our heads, and then, swinging our hats, shouted, 'Hosannah to G.o.d and the Lamb!' We could see the canes down in the valley, on what is now called Mill Creek, which looked like inviting grain, and thitherward we directed our course."*

* "Address to the Pioneers," 1880.

Having made an inspection of the valley, the two explorers rejoined their party about ten o'clock that evening. The next day, with great labor, a road was cut through the canyon down to the valley, and on July 22 Pratt's entire company camped on City Creek, below the present Emigration Street in Salt Lake City. The next morning, after sending word of their discovery to Brigham Young, the whole party moved some two miles farther north, and there, after prayer, the work of putting in a crop was begun. The necessity of irrigation was recognized at once. "We found the land so dry," says Snow, "that to plough it was impossible, and in attempting to do so some of the ploughs were broken. We therefore had to distribute the water over the land before it could be worked."

When the rest of the pioneers who had remained with Young reached the valley the next day, they found about six acres of potatoes and other vegetables already planted.

While Apostles like Snow might have been as transported with delight over the aspect of the valley as he professed to be, others of the party could see only a desolate, treeless plain, with sage brush supplying the vegetation. To the women especially the outlook was most depressing.

CHAPTER VII. -- THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES--LAST DAYS ON THE MISSOURI

When the pioneers set out from the Missouri, instructions were left for the organization of similar companies who were to follow their trail, without waiting to learn their ultimate destination or how they fared on the way. These companies were in charge of prominent men like Parley P.

Pratt, John Taylor, Bishop Hunter, Daniel Spencer, who succeeded Smith as mayor of Nauvoo, and J. M. Grant, the first mayor of Salt Lake City after its incorporation.

P. P. Pratt set out early in June, as soon as he could get his wagons and equipment in order, for Elk Horn River, where a sort of rendezvous was established, and a rough ferry boat put in operation. Hence started about the Fourth of July the big company which has been called "the first emigration." It consisted, according to the most trustworthy statistics, of 1553 persons, equipped with 566 wagons, 2213 oxen, 124 horses, 887 cows, 358 sheep, 35 hogs, and 716 chickens. Pratt had brought back from England 469 sovereigns, collected as t.i.thing, which were used in equipping the first parties for Utah. This company had at its head, as president, Brigham Young's brother John, with P. P. Pratt as chief adviser.

Nothing more serious interrupted the movement of these hundreds of emigrants than dissatisfaction with Pratt, upsets, broken wagons, and the occasional straying of cattle, and all arrived in the valley in the latter part of September, Pratt's division on the 25th.

The company which started on the return trip with Young on August 26 embraced those Apostles who had gone West with him, some others of the pioneers, and most of the members of the Battalion who had joined them, and whose families were still on the banks of the Missouri. The eastward trip was made interesting by the meetings with the successive companies who were on their way to the Salt Lake Valley. Early in September some Indians stole 48 of their hoses, and ten weeks later 200 Sioux charged their camp, but there was no loss of life.

On the 19th of October the party were met by a mounted company who had left Winter Quarters to offer any aid that might be needed, and were escorted to that camp. They arrived there on October 31, where they were welcomed by their families, and feasted as well as the supplies would permit.

The winter of 1847-1848 was employed by Young and his a.s.sociates in completing the church organization, mapping out a scheme of European immigration, and preparing for the removal of the remaining Mormons to Salt Lake Valley.

That winter was much milder than its predecessor, and the health of the camps was improved, due, in part, to the better physical condition of their occupants. On the west side of the river, however, troubles had arisen with the Omahas, who complained to the government that the Mormons were killing off the game and depleting their lands of timber.

The new-comers were accordingly directed to recross the river, and it was in this way that the camp near Council Bluffs in 1848 secured its princ.i.p.al population. In Mormon letters of that date the name Winter Quarters is sometimes applied to the settlement east of the river generally known as Kanesville.

The programme then arranged provided for the removal in the spring of 1848 to Salt Lake Valley of practically all Mormons who remained on the Missouri, leaving only enough to look after the crops there and to maintain a forwarding point for emigrants from Europe and the Eastern states. The legislature of Iowa by request organized a county embracing the camps on the east side of the river. There seems to have been an idea in the minds of some of the Mormons that they might effect a permanent settlement in western Iowa. Orson Pratt, in a general epistle to the Saints in Europe, encouraging emigration, dated August 15, 1848, said, "A great, extensive, and rich tract of country has also been, by the providence of G.o.d, put in the possession of the Saints in the western borders of Iowa," which the Saints would have the first chance to purchase, at five s.h.i.+llings per acre. A letter from G. A. Smith and E. T. Benson to O. Pratt, dated December 20 in that year, told of the formation of a company of 860 members to enclose an additional tract of 11,000 acres, in shares of from 5 to 80 acres, and of the laying out of two new cities, ten miles north and south. Orson Hyde set up a printing-press there, and for some time published the Frontier Guardian.

But wiser counsel prevailed, and by 1853 most of the emigrants from Nauvoo had pa.s.sed on to Utah,* and Linforth found Kanesville in 1853 "very dirty and unhealthy," and full of gamblers, lawyers, and dealers in "bargains," the latter made up princ.i.p.ally of the outfits of discouraged immigrants who had given up the trip at that point.

* On September 21, 1851, the First Presidency sent a letter to the Saints who were still in Iowa, directing them all to come to Salt Lake Valley, and saying: "What are you waiting for? Have you any good excuse for not coming? No. You have all of you unitedly a far better chance than we had when we started as pioneers to find this place."--Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 29.